Acute Response to Aerobic Exercise on Autonomic Cardiac Control of Patients in Phase III of a Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Program Following Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

Abstract

Objective The aim of the present study was to investigate the acute response to aerobic exercise on autonomic cardiac control of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods The study sample consisted of eight patients (age: 58.6±7.7 years; body mass index: 26.7±3.5 kg.m2) who underwent a successful CABG (no complications during surgery and/or in the following weeks). To assess heart rate variability (HRV), participants remained in a supine position with a 30-degree head elevation for 20 minutes. Electrocardiographic signal (protocol with three derivations) was collected from 600 Hz sample rate to obtain beat-to-beat intervals (R-R interval). This assessment was performed before, after one hour and after 24 hours of the exercise session. All patients underwent a 35 minutes aerobic exercise session (AES) (low-moderate intensity) on the cycle ergometer. Results Significant differences were found in the time domain, with positive changes in root mean square of successive RR interval differences (rMSSD) (ms) (parasympathetic component) (one [ P =0.017] and 24 hours [ P =0.007] post-session). In the frequency domain, we found a significant difference in high frequency (HF) (ms2) (parasympathetic component) (one hour [ P =0.048] post-session). The low frequency (LF)/HF ratio (sympathetic and parasympathetic components with a predominance of the sympathetic component) reached statistical significance only 24 hours ( P =0.018) post-session. Additionally, the largest effect size was observed only for the LF/HF ratio at one ( d =-0.8) and 24 hours ( d =-1.3) after one AES. Conclusion The practice of (acute) aerobic exercise improved autonomic cardiac control in patients undergoing CABG.

Impact of cardiac rehabilitation on ventricular repolarization indices following coronary artery bypass grafting

“…The known mechanism underlying ECG changes after CR program is the increased autonomic cardiac control after CR program. Gambassi et al[ 21 ] studied the patients who underwent CR program after CABG surgery and found that the autonomic control of the cardiac conduction was improved after CR.…”

Comparison of Combined and Aerobic Training on ABCG1 Lymphocyte Gene Expression in Middle-Aged Men Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

“…Yamamoto et al (2015) showed that resistance training increased muscle strength, exercise capacity and mobility in middle-aged CAD patients (17). Gambassi et al (2019) showed that acute response of AT in cardiovascular rehabilitation program after CABG improved cardiac autonomic control in patients undergoing CABG (18). Although there has been limited evidence about the effects of rehabilitation training programs on CABG patients, there is no significant consensus on the training intensity, duration, and even type of rehabilitation programs.…”

Exercise training and cardiac autonomic function following coronary artery bypass grafting: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Thirty-three prospective studies were incorporated in the full-text analysis after the abstracts of the chosen results were reviewed. Twenty-two studies were not included because they lacked a population sample [25], assessed outcomes not pertinent to the review [26,27], lacked a randomized and controlled design [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], lacked a control group [43,44] and were not in English [45,46]. For the qualitative synthesis, eleven studies were used [47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] out of which only eight studies [47-49, 51-54, 56] were included for meta-analysis as data provided in the remaining three studies were in unsuitable form [50,55] and insufficient [57].…”